5 Things: Breakfast

5 Things to Brighten Your Day

Despite the BS that May Get in Your Way

1.  Only four more days of finals!  Then town gets a lot quieter and the pace of life slows to a crawl.  I can't wait!

2.  "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz played on the radio this morning.  Such a happy summer song.

3.  Ali loves finger foods now, so life is pretty messy, and Lucy is getting lots of people food, but breakfast this morning went pretty well.  Ali didn't actively feed Lucy anything, and most of the Cheerios went in Ali's belly.

4.  Lunch with Lucy today.  It's great that I can go home most days and show my furry baby some love.

5.  With this lifestyle slow down, I have more time to read.  Right now I'm working on a galley for Circus Mirandus.  I've only been able to read bits and pieces, but I'm super intrigued and very excited to carve out some time for reading.

Mother's Day: Getting the Picture

Yesterday, I shared this little gem of my Ali Pie wishing everyone a Happy Mother's Day.  I actually made this into a nice little card from Mpix to send to everyone in place of proper Mother's Day cards.  

I normally go big on Mother's Day cards.  They go to everyone-moms, grandmas, great-grandmas, aunts, etc. etc.  But since this year was my first year without my mom, I couldn't face the card aisle.  So, our homemade chalk board and camera became our way to say Happy Mother's Day.  And given how darling this turned out, I think we'll do it every year.  That way all the women in our families will see Ali grow over the years.  Pretty neat!

This photo shoot took all of 10 minutes, but it was a very fun 10 minutes.  The family had just taken a walk on a positively glorious day and it was getting late.  Ali really should have been settling down for bed, Lucy was amped from the walk, but this was the time.  Lucy was all over the yard and Doug was simultaneously trying to keep Lucy away from Ali and make Ali smile, while I was trying to keep Ali on the blanket and snap the picture.  Wouldn't you know that the last picture was perfect, but how about some of the others?  Enjoy some of my other shots, complete with captions.

Hey, what's this?  

What is that dog doing?

What's this crawly thing?  Can I eat it?

Mom, I think this picture would be better if it were a movie!  Watch me go!

Yes, most of Ali's waking hours are consumed with moving and putting things in her mouth.  I wonder how her Father's Day photo shoot will go!

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mother's Day from the Ericksons!

We wish all mothers, grandmothers, daughters, aunts, godmothers, and friends a beautiful and happy day.  Take time to hug the women in your life.  

Book Review: Bridge to Terabithia

Bridge to Terabithia
By Katherine Paterson
HarperCollins, 1977
Reviewed from eBook
Audience: Grades 4-6
ISBN:  9780690013597
Publication Date:  October 21, 1977


Jess is a quiet kid in a family of loud girls and the boisterous boys at school are sometimes too much for him too.  He loves to draw, and loves music class every Friday with Miss Edmunds so he doesn't always fit in, but he tries not to stick out either.  Then Leslie moves in next door.  She's very different from the girls in his family and at his school.  Quickly she becomes the fastest runner in 5th grade, she only wears jeans, and her family doesn't have a TV.  She has a big imagination and quickly becomes friends with Jess.  The two build a fort in the woods known to them as Terabithia and there they imagine that they are a king and queen fighting off evil and protecting Terabithia, while still being perfectly normal kids at school and at home.  Their friendship grows, but is cut short by a terrible accident, and Jess must decide the fate of Terabithia. 

Spoilers ahead!

I never read this book as a child.  I think I was too busy reading Basil of Baker Street for the 9th time.    I think I missed out on most of the poignant books of my time, like Shiloh, Charlotte's Web, and Where the Red Fern Grows.  I just skipped them all.  What were they teaching me in school?  At least I remember Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, otherwise I would think my entire elementary education was a waste!

Moving right along.  Important items of note:  1.) This is not a fantasy.  Remember that terrible movie version of this a couple years ago?  No actual monsters were ever in this book.  It's about actual imagination.  Just going to a place and making up a story and living it out.  Which is something I entirely hope Ali can experience when she gets older.  2.) Leslie dies.  I knew this going in, so the whole time I'm trying to guess how.  Does she have some mysterious hiccuping disease?  Does she catch her death a cold because she was out in the rain?  (This seems to happen all the time in literature).  I didn't see it coming that she died on the rope swing.  That came out of left field for me.  

Overall impression:  good.  Paterson's writing is obviously beautiful, she's won numerous awards and her books are non overlong, but quite readable.  This plot was realistic for the time, although I wonder how many children will be able to relate to this type of rural environment, which was similar to how I felt about Shiloh.  Even though it's not, this book now strikes me as historic fiction because the time period and place are just so different from what children experience now.

The take away for me was the power of imagination and friendship.  Jess had a vivid imagination in his drawing, but he wasn't sure how to translate that to real like and that is what Leslie taught him.  That and how to be a good friend.  I hope this lesson is passed along to children today.  All it takes to have a wonderful time is a quiet place in the park and a bright imagination.  You can put yourself in a castle, a pirate ship, a space shuttle, anything just by pretending.

While I wasn't crying at the end of this book, I know that my 10 year old self would have been bawling.  That's a big bomb to drop on a child, but perhaps a necessary one.  Children are capable of understanding this type of occurrence and a book can help heal those wounds.

I'm glad I finally read Bridge to Terabithia.  Now I guess I need to read Charlotte's Web!

Happy Reading!

What's in My Bag

I've always liked a big bag.  I'm kinda a hoarder when it comes to my purse, especially when it comes to my everyday bag.  Now that I am a mom, it think it's getting worse, but when I dumped out my giant Bella Tunno shift sack, I discovered that it wasn't as bad as I thought.  I think all of these things would have been in my bag a year ago, except that now I do the bag-in-a-bag thing.  Let's break it down.

1.  Giant Bella Tunno Shift Sack--why did they stop making these?  Doug bought me this one on Amazon and I can honestly say that I want another one.  It's huge but not bulky and the material is just perfect for a beach bag.  And so far it's been great for tossing in books, my lunch bag, and stacks of mail.  This is actually the least amount of stuff it has seen recently.

2.  Rubber charity and teething bracelets.  With two teeth down and I don't know how many to go, Ali constantly needs a teether, and I'm probably terrible for letting her chew on those old charity bracelets, but she loves them.  These are on top of a Kate Spade jewelry pouch.  I don't know why that's in there, but I put it back so it must serve some purpose.

3.  Banana Republic shopping bag.  Since it folds up so small, I take it with my everywhere as a just in case bag.

4.  Norwex eyeglass cleaning scarf.  This little beauty does a great job of cleaning glasses and cell phones and can be clipped on your purse as a fun accessory.  But mine is just shoved in the cross body bag most days.

5.  Sunglasses.  I'm hard on sunglasses, so these are from the Dollar Store.  But I have had them for well over a year, so maybe that's where I should get all my sunglasses.

6.  Notebooks.  One notebook for lists and notes, the other for my 5 Things to Brighten Your Day lists.

7.  Random things that fall to the bottom of my cross body.  Found here are ink pens, lip balm (I was a huge Burt's Bees girl, but this Blistex Naturals stuff is my new favorite), hand sanitizer, stick drives.  I always have these two stick drives with me-one for pictures and one for book reviews.

8.  Small necessities bag.  Advil, nail clippers and file, lotion, bobby pins, eye roller, etc.

9.  Kate Spade wallet, which imagine is just as messy on the inside as my purse!

10.  Black nylon cross body bag.  I'm in the market for a new bag.  This one is a tad too small to hold my wallet, so that is my minimum-I need something that can hold a full size wallet.  And I would prefer nylon.  I'm over fake leather.

11.  Kleenexes because someone always has a runny nose.

12.  Hairbrush

13.  Eyeglass case.  If I wear my contacts to work, I usually take my glasses just in case I can't take anymore.  With allergy season kicking my booty, plus 8 hours in front of a computer, I'm all glasses right now.

14.  Another girl necessities bag.  You know what I mean, but it also has some makeup in it too.

That's it, that's all, for today anyway.  I do love this bag because I can keep tossing stuff in it and then just grab my cross body for shopping or running a quick errand.  Maybe someday I'll show you the crazy that is my baby bag.  Now that's a mess and a half!

Book Review: Vanishing Girls

Vanishing Girls
By Lauren Oliver
HarperCollins, 2015
Reviewed from hardcover
Audience: High School
ISBN:  9780062224101
Publication Date:  March 10, 2015


Sisters Dara and Nick have a typical love/annoyed relationship.  Dara is the good girl, constantly trying to keep daring Nick in line, but one night, things seem to go too far.  That night there is an accident and time is now divided into before and after.  Their relationship is further complicated by Parker, their neighbor and childhood friend who has dated Nick and might have feelings for Dara too. This summer, Dara becomes closer to Parker, while also trying to understand why Nick is hiding from her.  The whole book crashes to a conclusion as Nick goes missing and Dara struggles to find her.  

This is a book about sisters, secrets, and forgiveness.  

Vanishing Girls is the kind of book that you race through.  Not only does Oliver have a beautiful writing style, but she also writes a very tightly wound plot.  A friend gave me this book for my birthday and I read it in a week, a rare and precious thing since having Ali.  I'd seen it advertised here and there, but didn't pick it up for myself because I'm on the fence about Oliver as an author.  She writes so perfectly, yet her overall plots are sometimes lacking.  I wasn't a fan of the Delirium series (too trite for my taste.  Love is an affliction, but it's the only way to save the world), and The Spindlers didn't do justice to changelings in my opinion.  But I loved Liesl and Po, so when I got this book for my birthday I went for it.  

My feelings are still mixed.  

The main blurb for this book came from E. Lockart, author of We Were Liars.  

"Alarming and uplifting, a rare psychological thriller that has a kind heart at its center. Read it with all the lights on." -- E. Lockhart, author of We Were Liars.   Quoted from Goodreads.

Like We Were Liars, the ending is a major reveal.  Unlike We Were Liars, it felt a little too forced.  The plot is barely contained toward the end of the novel, so you are breathless at the end, and you need a day or so to think about what you just read.  And the more you think about, the more disappointed you become.  When I thought about We Were Liars, I just felt stupid that I didn't see it sooner.  With Vanishing Girls, it was more like a feeling of being let down.  Like it was easy.  And the whole subplot of missing Madeline Snow was just too contrived for my taste-the parallels of a missing Nick and missing Madeline were too forced.

So my relationship with Lauren Oliver continues to be a complicated one.  To me, her masterpiece is Liesl and Po, and which was a book that she wrote from the heart while in a very dark place.  Everything else employs the same perfect prose and heart stopping talent for language, but it just lacks in strong plot.

Do you agree?  What were your thoughts on Vanishing Girls?  Let me know!

Happy Reading!

5 Things: Countdown to Summer

5 Things to Brighten Your Day

Despite the BS that May Get in Your Way

1.  So far May has been perfect weather wise, and it's the same today.  Warm and sunny and lovely and perfect.  

2.  Our mythical bathroom is now finished, and I need to take some pictures and write a whole post about it because it is just so awesome!  But for now, it's one of the things that makes me happy.

3.  Coffee.  I'm always a little sad after that last sip.

4.  Morning baby cuddles!  Ali has become a good sleeper, but she's a morning person.  Like 5:30 am kind of morning.  But we let her talk in her crib until 6:00 am on the off chance that she'll understand that anything before that time is just ridiculous.  Even so, after you feed her, she's the sweetest little cuddle bug.  I'm not a morning girl, actually I love my sleep more than coffee, but I love my morning cuddles.

5.  School is winding down, so there is basically only one week left before summer break starts.  Which is great because I will be volunteering at two different libraries in June and running VBS, and taking a long vacation that involves driving through five states.  Bring on July!